A number of diagnostic procedures can now be performed by the patients at home utilizing relatively small quantities of blood which can be conveniently obtained from capillary blood sources such as a fingertip. While various blood sampling devices have been proposed and are in use, most of them, as exemplified by the following listed patents, are of the type which draw venous blood from patients in a procedure which should be performed by a trained medical technologist:
______________________________________ 3,200,813 Christakis 4,256,120 Finley 3,536,061 Ogle 4,298,011 Mangurten et al 3,545,427 Ryan 4,409,990 Mileikowsky 4,024,857 Blecher et al 4,418,703 Hoch et al 4,155,350 Percarpio 4,449,529 Burns et al 4,215,700 Crouther et al ______________________________________
While not all of the foregoing patents are directed to devices which accumulate venous blood, none have been sufficiently versatile to accomplish all of the objects of the present invention.